New-York tribune., 1887-12-13
THE TELEPHONE MONOPOLY.
0uyrwD PLANS OF THE BELL COMPANY.
NOW ITS CONTROL OF TIE CARBON TELEPHONE
NAY DE PROLONGED ANOTHER SEVENTEEN

E,M
ow TIA CONTROL OF TIE CARBON TELEPHONE
,,.v re PROLONGED ANOTHER SEVENTEEN
YEARS
r,rcutors and experts brmful OF fact or fancy and
=, ais of priority OF discovery dropping in on the
,sen,ly Telephone Investigating Committee at an
,orne rate Mr.. Strong, OF Brooklyn. with his ideas
=, polarity, who appeared Saturday, was followed
escrlay by William Chase Barney. OF this city.
no.pectaccd and moro venerable than his pre-
asco>sor lie fu of alleged facts that Chairman
Insworth who had expected to call officers OF the Met
,onolitdn Company. him two hours examination
Mr.. Barney has had large experience In telephones
4, England and this country. and thinks that he the
ony man with patent on the Use or carbon In
microphonlc transmitter IN combination with dia
nhrayn or tympan." He proceeded TO show how the
American Bell Company bound even after the
.xpliion its main patent IN 1898. to retain control
~ telephone patents. on April H. 1877. Mr. Barney
said Emile Berncr filed caveat in the Patent Office
for a traGsnlter in which carbon with a tympan was
usea On July 20. 1877 Mr.. Edison applied for patent
IN the same field, aud in the application the expression
.the combination with a diaphragm of one or more
contact points of plumbaso similar inferior con.
dpctors and pther features showed that the Edison
application and the Berncr ctveat nterfered. and the
patent Office had decided STILL Mr. Edison got
pa,cuts although no special mention made of the
u,e OF carbon Berluer also secured patents in which
no specific claim for carbon up. Mr.. Barney
declared. The that there specific mention
NJ carbon was lie said, that when the patents
issued interfering claims of Berliner and Edison had
not been decided and they were not decided yet
THE B+LL PEOPLE SAW THE OPPORTUNITY.
.Tncrcfcrc," Mr.. Barney declared onergetclly.
-terc were claimants, Berliuer anl Edison, to the
Use OF carbon witA tympan IN transO!tter But the
American Bell Telephone Company tnis opportunity
lo,s ago and lured all the tights OF Bcr!iuer and
Eii.on, st that at any advantageous time they can
arrange TIE Interference get oIi patent ON carooH
wit, a tympau in transmter AMI the patent will bear
dre from of its issue In other words, just
before the present Bell patent expires in 1898 the Bell
Company set patent on the Berliner- Ellison
c,is which il controls and then for seventeen years II
will have control OF the carbon telephone"
Mr. Barney declared that the Bell patent of no
earthly value 1t "only a receiver having
permanent magnet with iron tympan." Tnc witness
thought that the English telephone system was better
for conversation than the American because the inSru
mems were better made In Loniol there were 3,293
subscribers with rates of $lO0 within radius OF twelve
miles Charing Cross. The service there was house
top wholly. This feature made the telephone wire
Substitute for lightning rods
Mr.. Barney went into figures right and LETT, ami
denounced lonopolies with vgor in the same breath
Barney did not believe in putting the wires under
ground and expressed his emphatic faith that when the
Western Union got into the subway would send
current electricity through it which would paralylc
the telephone. In Ills general onslaught Mr. Barney
Incidentally referred the Wizard of the North as
"the greatest humbug of the age" anl all present
hunoied hun with Il smile. He dill not leave the chair
until he said that his electrical xp-rence had cost him
SI2iCOO OF which he had nnally got back $4,000
COST OF TIE LONDON TELEPHONE PLANT
Allen W Rose who bad been assistant engineer in the
telephone service London. sid that IT cost twice as
much the plant in London as here. Ths did not
imcnde swiichboars which purchased here OF the
Western Electric Company Women were the operators
III lunuon
> r. t,uerry the auditor OF the Metropolitan Tee'
phone Company. recalled. gave the mum Ier OF iee.
phones ia the panys service III lS-l as @"'S Wleh
had gradually Increased 10 annual a\ craze OF oIVL,
with lO3 public stations
Mr. Barney who insisted on suggesting questions. got
q chance testify again saying that despite the terri
good for twenty years.
William H. Ecsert. the superintendent OF the Metro
plants twenty These came mostly In this form
Please get my line into shan good storm would
awaken ''Vo I" a. "a ~ ,,i,,'io t,ri,, yrc.
from crosses, or companies hdNlnS NIc,s
adjacent Nine of ten companies anticipated
luidcOkper, the witness had heard complaints about
the rates only from 10th OF per cent OF the com
panys 5000 subscribers Mr. Eckert thought lie conId
reasonable man tat tue rates were not 700
high A. 10 the allega that the city was not getting
its 5000 annually for Law Telephone privileges AZ the
Cnurt House the witness backed by Messrs. Camp ana
had been paid 10 Mr. keso, tie superintendent OF
Markets. and that the last voucher OF March last cond
WIS not necessary With Mr.. Camps and. MI Ec@ert
went over the enormous expense which the company
maintaining It's service The actual cos; to each SUB
srr.l,cr when the were underground, womb nc
81 a. 20, II would cost $23Ooo 10 aae tle " 40" & n
and these could not he given away 10 farmers 'or
fence wire The whole worth of the coTp1nN property
now on hand would he only SSoo,ooo "heh ihe uhheI
ground system had been substituted The chairman anu
MIR Caulp had a lively struggle over the relative
djculurs in the overhead and underground systems,
ana an adjournment was then taken until TO day.